Document vJG20QREaEVM54bKxYGGQ7YZ

Labor Scsriont control measures arc' years ahead of this country,, which does not even have coal dust standards in force.** 6.. The workmen's compensation system in this country--its coverage, benefits, and de terrence--is creaking with obsolescence. A thorough inquiry is needed and serious thought should be given to uniformity. Not only are there irrational or politically in spired differences between states but some states are still mired in a value system .of a bygone age. For example, coal miners' black lung disease is not considered workrelated by the compensation laws of all states, except Pennsylvania (1965), Virginia (1968), and Alabama. Such human derelicts, spitting up coal dust, struggling for breath, afflicted with emphysema. Hussive fibrosis, or enlarged heart, are denied workmen's , compensation in such states as West Vir ginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. In Ken tucky, according -to the state's Departnttnt of Labor, about 1,400 out of 2,000 mines licensed to do business do not comply with the workmen's compensation law for other mine injuries apart from black lung. Yet, the present governor and his predecessor have not considered law and order to be applicable to coal operators. Where does this leave the National Safety Council? Certainly, it docs no service to truth and candor to hide the fact that the Council's industrial members and constitu ency take a strong interest in how far the Council goes in the occupational health and safety area. That interest, to use a mild word, resulted in the Council's being placed in a difficult position regarding the Occupa tional Safety and Health Act of 1968. Some observers believed that the Council retracted from a relatively positive position on the bill in February to a statement more in consonance with industry's preferences a few months later. For the Council, it is the same old dilemma of "to' be or not to be" that has plagued its potential independence in other safety areas. If the Council Is to be trqe to its potential in occupational health and safety, it cannot ignore at least some of the above-noted problems obstructing progress toward more humane working conditions. LASER BEAM PRECAUTIONS By WILLMlM IfeCULLOUGH Collective Agreement ft Grievance 6fficer, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario Hydro Employees Local 1000, CLC, Toronto, Ont Before we consider the hazards and'pre- cancel each other. Because it is non-direc- cautions for the safe use of the laser beam, tional and of varying wavelengths, it is said we' should understand what it is. The/ name to be incoherent light from a laser beam laser is an acronym for light amplification travels in only one direction and is all at by stimulated , emission* of radiation. The the same wavelength, so that it reinforces original concept was invented by Dr/Townes itself and is known as coherent light Be in 1955. In 1958 Dr. Townes and Dr. Arthur cause it travels In one direction in straight .Schawtou gave a paper on how to construct lines, it is a very narrow beam. an optical maser. The name maser is an To obtain a directional beam from an in acronym for micro-wave amplification by coherent conventional source of light it must stimulated emission of radiation. An optical be focused, and even then it soon spreads maser is a'laser. it's beam again. Ordinary light sources are In 1960 Dr. Theodore Maiman, a scientist usually heat units such as incandescent lamps, then working with the Hughes Aircraft are lights, etc In a neon tube the glass walls Company, gave the world's first demonstra- - remain cool but the.electrons activate the tion of a laser beam. In 1964 Dr. Townes neon atoms within the glass tube and ac won the Nobel prizg for his work on the celerate them to levels normally fotmd at theory of lasers. high temperatures. The atoms of the source Tiie light that comes from a conventional material are brought to a continuous excited light source radiates in all directions - in state and they fall bade to normal by losing waves of varying lengths that reinforce or energy through heat and visible light